Beijing, China
Is he Businessman China’s most famous and the “self-made man” symbol for its countrymen. At 56, Jack Ma will face the revenge of the authorities, who appear determined to spread his wings.
Next Thursday is the State Administration for Market Regulation of China Shook up the Chinese business world, where Alibaba and its charismatic founder Jack Ma symbolize the success of e-commerce, by announcing that this internet giant will be investigated for “suspicious monopolistic practices.”
It is former English teacher, officially ‘retired’ from Alibaba since last year, was insulted by financial regulators, who also contacted Ant Group, a subsidiary of Alibaba, the world leader in online payments and of which Ma is the largest shareholder, to talk about “supervision and advice”.
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This happened a few weeks after Beijing last-minute frustrated the company’s IPO, which led Jack Ma to believe his fortune would exceed $ 70,000 million ($ 60,000 million).
This fiasco cost Jack Ma billions, including the loss of China’s first fortune title, estimated at $ 58 billion.
President Xi Jinping’s power seems determined to combat the monopolistic tendencies of private groups such as Alibaba, whose online sales platforms are used by hundreds of millions of Chinese.
An unprecedented setback for this millionaire, who anticipated the evolution of his fellow countrymen towards electronic commerce for everyone when he co-founded Alibaba in 1999.
The Chinese media often recall his humble origins, a father struggling to feed his family, his poor school results and the small, low-paid jobs to founding Alibaba in an apartment in Hangzhu, East China, with a capital of $ 60,000 that he borrowed from friends.
Jack Ma (whose Chinese name is Ma Yun) decided to give up his profession as a university teacher after discovering the Internet and offering companies the opportunity to exchange their assets online.
This man quickly understood the potential of smartphones and pioneered his Alipay service, electronic mobile payment, now ubiquitous in China, gaining a reputation as a visionary.
Michael Jackson and the Communist Party
“The first time I used the Internet, I typed and said to myself, ‘This is going to change the world and China,’” he told the US television network CNN.
The start of Alibaba’s online trading platform, Taobao, forced the American eBay to practically withdraw from the Chinese market in 2006 and gave way to its rival.
Jack Ma is known for his eccentricities in a rather serious Chinese business world. Much admired by his employees, he is often compared to Steve Jobs, Apple’s legendary co-founder, although his style is more relaxed.
The successful and atypical businessman is simultaneously a supporter of tai chi, traditional Chinese gymnastics for inner and physical balance, took the stage at a corporate party disguised as Michael Jackson and is a member of the very austere Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in power. .
From Davos to Wall Street, he has rubbed shoulders with global personalities and promised Donald Trump to create a million jobs by January 2017, when the US billionaire entered the White House.
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He then withdrew that promise on the grounds of Trump’s trade war against China.
In September 2018, Jack Ma announced that he would retire a year later when he turned 55 to devote himself to educational philanthropic projects, a reminder of the path followed by one of his models, the founder from Microsoft, Bill Gates.
His rise has always earned criticism and enmity at the top of the Communist Party.
Jack Ma may need to reconsider the slogan that has guided his career, which he clearly set forth at Davos, the global financial event, in 2007: “My philosophy is to be in love with power without marrying it.”